TYPICAL JANUARY SATURDAY

A cold market day this morning but it was a little busier than last Saturday.
As I covered my table  before leaving I noticed how empty it was of sewn items. Note to self "you need to hurry up with the cleaning and get behind the sewing machine" !!!!
January typically is my deep cleaning month, where I move everything and clean under it, go through all cabinets ,etc.  I
February is tax month !!!
March is catching up with my sewing month. But with all the empty shelves I need to speed this up a bit.
I stopped by a antique/junk shop on the way home that is having a going out of business sale. But it looked just like it did when I was in there a couple years ago. There is so much stuff you can't even move much less find anything !! I really only need a cup holder that hangs on the wall to display some old cups I have but he didn't have one. Lucky for me I came home with all my money intact !!
After unloading the van ,hubbie took it up to his shop to change the oil and put the new brake fluid cap that he finally found after searching 3 parts stores. But guess what, he found the old cap lodged in a space, maybe where he layed it last time he checked the fluid level ????????
Daughter brought grand-dog Tipper by this evening to play with Annie and also had a nice young man with her that one of her friends had introduced her to. He made a nice first impression on hubbie and I anyway.
I got some photos downloaded this afternoon and read my new O magazine.
It has been a sunny day until late this evening when the clouds rolled in. The high was 43 degrees and tonight it is supposed to be mid 20's with snow flurries.
Hubbie and I had some of the shrimp we bought at the coast in October for supper tonight,yummy.
Relaxing night watching the flames in the wood stove and being grateful .
I'll leave you with this thought and May God Bless.

FRIDAY THE 13TH HAS ONLY MINOR MISHAPS

Whew !!!, What  a difference this morning as it now feels like a January morning should. Luckily the hard winds of last night didn't do much damage around here. Only blew over some patio furniture and left some limbs around the yard. I am very thankful after listening to the gust hit the bedroom windows as I tried to get to sleep last night.
After chores and breakfast I baked 18 layers, a pound and a wine cake before lunch.
#1 son isn't working today so he picked up g-son from pre-school and brought him here for lunch. He wanted waffles with syrup over them. I told son that was probably more healthy than that burger and fries he had stopped and picked up for himself on the way.
After lunch son went over to a friends house to help him put some flooring down, leaving g-son to spend the afternoon with me.
While he played with his race set and operation game I did the yearly cleaning of all my old china and things I keep in this old cabinet in the sunroom.

These open mouthed lion heads on this cabinet were believed to ward off ill spirits in olden days.

To me they are a nice conversation piece.
I removed all the dishes and what-nots and cleaned them as well as the cabinet shelves and outside glass and wood. All these dishes have wonderful memories for me and I have decided I need to document the connections with these pieces and keep it with them.
This pitcher and glasses set was purchased by Hubbie's mother in 1955, the year he was born.

This next pitcher and unfortunately only one glass made it to me came from my mother's house and I remember using this every summer with tea and lemonade in it.

These next two sets are Princess House sets I purchased when the kids were small, have no idea why I only bought 2 ????

This set has papers with it that say Heritage.

This set is Fantasia patterned Princess House Chrystal.
I keep telling the kids that after I'm gone a trip to Antique Roadshow is in their future !!
I love the memories these things evoke and that to me makes them worth keeping and cleaning at least once a year.I am going to look each piece up to get a name and age, and get an idea of the current value.
As I get  the info on each one I am going to put it in a post so it will be preserved on here as well as put the info with the piece.
After cleaning g-son begged to help me make some caramel icing so he could have some to eat.
So we made the icing and he only made one mistake that will make my load of cakes to market one less tomorrow.
If you look at this picture really closely you will see a small hand print in this layer. G-son was checking to make sure it was cool when he somehow stumbled and mashed his hand into it??!!!Me thinks he just wanted some cake to go with his icing !!!

But I feel blessed as this ,a pound cake that fell and a little snafoo with my van tonight were the only bad luck that I had on this Friday the 13th and the clock just ticked to 12:01 so it is now the 14th.
Daughter had a house warming party with the TV people she used to work with tonight and d-in-love attended so #1 son, #2 son and g-son all came up for supper tonight.
I made a cake delivery and the "low brake fluid" light came on in the van. When I got home hubbie checked it and found the cap to the reservoir missing. We have no idea when it was taken off  unless they checked it Monday during the inspection and didn't get it back on tightly so it fell off. Anyway I now have a celephane plastic and rubber band cap until Hubbie can find a parts place that has one to buy. Hubbie said that was my bad luck for the day but I think that was my good luck because if that light hadn't come on there's no telling how long it would have been until I found the cap missing and dirt and water might have gotten into the brakes.
I have all my cakes iced and wrapped and am headed for bed after midnight.
It has been a cold day with 32 being the high of the day but the snow stayed north of us and the wind has died down. Right now it is 24 and quiet at midnight.
Glory to God , our Father who watches over us constantly.
Good Night and God Bless.

THIS DAY HAS BEAUTIFUL START BUT NASTY ENDING

WOW !!!What a difference this morning !! I loved my walk today except for the fact that I still couldn't go into the very muddy wet bottom pasture as I usually do. But staying on the driveway and the grassy paths around the garden and greenhouse was a nice way to start this gorgeous ,warm morning.
I finished getting everything I needed to do in town lined up this morning and after lunch I was off to run errands and take care of some tax listings at the courthouse along with delivering a cake order.
I had time to do some shopping for new living room rugs and found what I wanted at K-mart for alot less than 1/2 the price I looked at some on line for.
By the time I got to Walmart which was my last stop the beautiful blue skies were history and the dark clouds were back again with drizzly rain. The sky was so dark it was scary after what happened yesterday so I was glad to get home safely.

The storm that hit the town just east of here yesterday afternoon was officially declared a class 2 tornado with 115 mph winds. These pictures tell what that kind of wind can do.

They are still assessing the amount of damaged homes.

We are praying for our neighbors as they pick up the pieces and start over.

This was a history making event as it was the first ever tornado in January. Rutherford county has only been hit with 6 tornadoes in it's history and they were all between May and October.

This is proof that these mountains are not free from a tornadoes major damage.
Tonight we are experiencing very high winds here and blowing snow, it is 29 degrees at 11:30 and the snow showers are supposed to continue throughout the night.
After exercising tonight I watched a Duke/ Virginia b-ball game on TV, Duke won.
Yesterday I had time to go through pictures for some January Decade pictures.

January was the month my family actually really began as on January 2nd  1952 my dad and mom said their wedding vows.

This is the wedding party from your left ,my dad's oldest brother Jay, my dad and mom, my mom's sister Hattie and her husband Anderson, (doing the pointing) . The photographer in this picture was Jay's wife Bertha and in the picture below Hattie is the photographer and the shorty is my Aunt Bertha.

Here is another photo I found marked January 1952. This is my dad on your right with his sister Hattie and her family.

That old Oldsmobile was our car until I was in my early teen years, ha ,how I wish I still had that car !
Dad worked for GM for several years in the Cadillac department and back then he said the Oldsmobile was the testing ground for the more expensive Caddy.
I remember both my Aunt Hattie's and know that both of them were beautiful,loving ladies.
I am sitting here typing hoping the wind doesn't blow down the power lines before I finish this so I'm saying a quick good bye tonight.
May God bless us all through this crazy weather.
Good Night and God Bless.

THUNDER,LIGHTENING, RAIN, HAIL AND TORNADOES, OH MY !!!!

A dark dreary morning as the rain has been falling all night. I fed the chickens in their houses today  and headed back for my house, glad I don't have to be out in this mess today ! As thunder and lightning flashed I thought this is really odd for January.
After breakfast I cleaned my floors and washed a load of bathroom rugs before lunch. I called Hubbie and asked him to pick up my Avon order as he was out in the mess anyway.
On the news at noon they said lightning struck a house on the other side of town and it burned down,luckily no one was home. This morning's lightning also struck a local TV stations tower and knocked them off the air. All this made me feel blessed to have had no damage.
Just after lunch I noticed the sky growing very dark and I heard thunder in the distance again. As I watched the storm get closer,the rain was coming down in buckets. I took this picture out my front bay window.

The thunder and lightning got closer and Dolly and Bernie wanted to get under something and hide until it was over. I put them under the blanket on the couch and they stayed there.
During the thunder,lightning and rain unbelievably the sun came out !!!  In this picture you can see the sun sparkling through the trees.

This sent me looking for the rainbow and I found this beauty stretched across the sky in the back yard.

It was hard to see through the trees and the clouds soon covered it and the sun back over but I felt relieved from the sight of God's promise.

When hubbie came home a little later he said it hailed at his workplace in Flat Rock ,just west of our place.

This is not the kind of ice you expect in January !!!

And sadly for some folks in neighboring Rutherford county this tornado touched down causing major damage and leaving many hurting, some critically hurt. 

I am saying prayers for these folks tonight and for the rescuers that are spending this evening searching through the rubble for people.
Thankfully for our place all we have is a few limbs down and a whole lot of mud !! There was only a little over 2" in our rain gauge but it came down in buckets. As I did evening chores the clouds were lifting and the setting sun was visible just as it went over the horizon.

I took this pic as I walked to the mailbox after chores.
Hubbie went over to daughter's tonight to help her put up a new light fixture in her dining room. He still is fighting a terrible head cold and I'm just hoping he doesn't share it with me !!
I did weekly paperwork and payed bills while he was gone,then bagged all my Avon orders getting one ready to ship out tomorrow.
When he got back he didn't feel like exercising so I did mine alone tonight. I can tell I'm getting more used to it now and can do each machine a little longer each night without stressing.
No relaxing couch time for me tonight as it was almost 10:00 when I finished office work.
Listening to the news tonight hearing them say now we might get snow tomorrow night !!!
Thanking the Lord tonight for sparing us during today's storms and praying for the ones who were affected.
Good Night and God Bless.

A GOOD GARDENING WINTER SO FAR

Woke this morning to a quiet morning. No sound of rain drops on the roof !
After chores which are still a challenge because of all the slick mud and a quick bowl of cereal I wanted to squeeze a morning walk in because this may be the only day this week we don't have rain.
I decided to stay on the drive and up on the hill instead of going into the very wet bottom pasture. As I rounded the garden I couldn't help but chuckle at what a good gardening winter this has been so far.
The kale is still producing and we are thankful for the extra winter vitamins it gives us. We try to have it in a meal at least once a week.

  We also still have a few Collards still waiting to be made into a meal.

 But the strangest looking things are the herbs that are still green and growing  in the month of January.
 Like this bunch of Parsley.

And this Oregano bed that just keeps growing and growing .

This has been an extremely mild winter so far for us here in the southern Blue Ridge mountains. I keep nervously waiting for the winter shoe to drop. But all we've seen of a typical winter this year is a few days here and there of cold temperatures and a few snow flakes one time.
 This is the almanac page on the news tonight of this day's average temps and actual temps and this has been the norm for most of this winter's days.

When it does turn winter time it is going to be really hard on us and everything else as some plants are already starting to leaf out.
We are under a flood watch for tomorrow with a system of heavy rain moving in later tonight. I was just wondering how much snow that would be if we were having a winter like we've had the past couple years.
My day was spent doing laundry and house cleaning chores between picking up g-son from pre-school and keeping him happy for the afternoon. He didn't feel good so he spent the dreary day laying in the recliner watching his favorite TV shows. D-in-love started the church cleaning job today.
His dad picked him up about 5:30 and hubbie and I headed out to do the chores before the rain gets here. The sun tried all day to break through the thick clouds but had little success.

Hubbie and I continued our exercise routine tonight even though he has come down suddenly with a terrible head cold.
We watched a UNC/ Miami b-ball game tonight which UNC won with ease.
I had to change my browser over to Mozilla Firefox tonight to get my photos to upload. Now I've lost all my bookmarks and will have to redo them,grrrrrrr !!!
I hear the rain as it starts falling outside ,I hope we don't get a flood.
As I watched g-son this afternoon I thanked God for the blessing of having him close and being able to be part of his growing up years. I feel God has blessed me beyond belief and I strive each day to glorify Him in all that I do.
Good Night and God Bless

RAINY MONDAY

Yuck, another dreary foggy,rainy morning. I did the chores and the chickens weren't eager to come out of their nice warm,dry houses. I don't blame them I wasn't either !!
G-son came early this morning and hubbie took him to pre-school.
When he got back he went to work on some wood that needed stacking and I was determined to get the stuff back on all my shelves today. I always take this opportunity to wash and dust all these things before putting them back out so that is what takes so long to get it done.
I put in an Avon order this morning as well then got ready to go pick up g-son at 11:40.
They were outside which surprised us as it is misting rain again .
After we got him we stopped by Jiffy Lube to get the van inspected while there wasn't a long line of cars.
They really do a good job of looking over vehicles for inspection. This makes hubbie mad because he thinks they are just trying to find something wrong to make more money on. This is probably true but when he came up to me and said you are good it's only $30 I knew for sure there was nothing wrong with my van.
We went to Sam's for lunch and shopping, then to Walmart and Ingles  plus a stop at sis-in-laws to pick up some things before heading home at almost 3:00. It was a good way to spend a yucky day, it has been 50 degrees but the rains have gotten harder as the day goes on.
D-in-love called and said she was going to work at her dad's office for a while but g-son didn't want to go so he stayed and played here until his dad got off work at 6:00.
I finished getting all the stuff cleaned and arranged on the shelves and even got some cleaning done in my office.
After slogging through chores this evening the rain starting to really come down  I poured another 1/4 inch out of the rain gauge. Hubbie shut the gate on the cows just in case and they are saying we could have some flooding Wednesday with another rain system that is coming through.
Hubbie and I had a salad supper before doing our exercises tonight. I wasn't sore at all today but when I got back on the equipment tonight I noticed some sore muscles !
Relaxed the rest of the evening and prayed for all the folks who are out on the roads tonight in this pea soup thick fog.

God is good all the time, all the time God is good !!!
Good night and God Bless.

GOOD RAINY RESTFUL SUNDAY

Woke to a rainy morning. After chores and breakfast I got ready for church.
We had a nice service today and when the preacher called me to the front of the church I didn't know what to expect. But he just wanted to left the congregation know about the janitor change and to commend us old janitors for a job well done for the last 7 years.
D-in-love is taking the whole church over since she can work in the mornings to get the job done and it will be the perfect job for her. She is starting Tuesday. That means I take over g-son responsibilities starting tomorrow because she already works on Mondays.
I stayed late after church going over some things with the personal team member who is training d-in-love. So when we got home at 1:00 it became a spaghetti lunch day. Everyone except d-in-love came (she is working at her parents restaurant). Daughter even went home and brought Tipper over to play with Annie while we ate. They made the best of a rainy afternoon.

These two are best friends and playmates.

But you can tell who is the older dog by the length on the tongues !!!!

Tipper had to go home and get a bath and Annie got to sleep on the porch the rest of the afternoon.

When everyone left to go take care of various task Hubbie and I spent a rainy Sunday afternoon doing what Sundays are for !

The temperature hung around 50 degrees all day and even tonight at 11:00 it is still 47, there was only about 2/10ths of an inch in the rain gauge this evening.

After a relaxing afternoon and a soggy choretime we had left over greek salad for supper.

We rested again and watched the news before going downstairs to begin our new years resolution  exercise routine. Tonight to get things started we each spent about 5 minutes on each machine we have. I love the new exercise bike the kids got me for Christmas, I rode 1 mile in 5 minutes. I then spent 5 minutes on my gazzelle and then a painful 5 minutes on the stairstepper we have. The stairstepper is the hardest for me and it really got my heart rate up. We are trying to start slow enough not to be so sore tomorrow.

We watched a couple new TV shows after exercising and another goal of mine is an earlier bedtime so I can get up earlier as I'm going to have to get a new schedule going with g-son coming back everyday.

It looks like we are in for a nasty week for the most part this week. At least it's just rain and not snow like the past couple Januarys,get a load of those mild temperatures.

Grateful to God for a blessed restful Sunday and for all the answered prayers.

Good Night and God Bless.